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In Wotton, who eventually became Provost of Eton, Cavendish had as a companion a man of letters. Of his poetry only two fragments shall be quoted.

Untrue she was: yet I believed her eyes

(Instructed spies)

Till I was taught that love was but a school

To breed a fool.

—love, lodged in a woman’s breast,

Is but a guest.

Wotton’s literary tastes may have had the effect of implanting a love of literature in Cavendish, or at least of inducing him to dabble in literature. The very fact of his father’s never pressing the boy to give much attention to books or scholars in early youth, may have disposed him to cultivate both at maturity.

It was an advantage for Cavendish to learn something of foreign countries and customs at the Court of the Duke of Savoy; and in courtiery,ssss1 as in other professions, it is well for a man to make the inevitable mistakes of early practice away from home. At that Court he was treated with great kindness. The Duchess of Newcastle writes:—

“He went to travel with Sir Henry Wotton who was sent as Ambassador Extraordinary to the then Duke of Savoy; which Duke made very much of My Lord, and when he would be free in Feasting, placed Him next to himself. Before My Lord did return with the Ambassador into England, the said Duke profer’d my Lord, that if he would stay with him, he would not onely confer upon him the best Titles of Honour he could, but also give him an honourable Command in War, although My Lord was but young, for the Duke had then some designs of War. But the Ambassador, who had taken the care of My Lord, would not leave Him behind without His Parents consent.”